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At a chance encounter in Davos, Ireland’s Leo Varadkar asked Nick Clegg whether it was really conceivable that Britain’s Prime Minister would dare to go “over the cliff” and into a no-deal Brexit. “I’m afraid to say that she really might,” was the reply.

Days later the shaken Taoiseach felt the imperial fist of the European Parliament’s six-man steering group on Brexit. MEPs Elmar Brok and Philippe Lamberts declared Ireland will be forced to erect a hard border in the North in the event of a no-deal.

If the Irish state refused to police the frontiers of the EU single market with proper vigour, it would be ejected from the European trading system. “We would have to set up customs barriers against...